busy, busy, busy and busy!

Who knew that Halloween could be a very busy time of the year?  Apparently not me.  I think I under estimated how one can become so involved when there are two kids in school.  It takes Halloween - and I would imagine any other holiday yet to come - to an entirely new level.  No, I'm not complaining, but this past week, ok maybe two weeks, has been crazy.  But good crazy. 
Let's see....what have I been up to?

First off....carving pumpkins.  The kids were so into it this year.  They designed there own faces, and if my pumpkin carving knife hadn't snapped, I would have let Aidan give carving a try.  Let's face it though, a steak knife and a six year old probably isn't a good idea.  Instead, Aidan separated the pumpkin goop, from the sticky seeds.  Much safer.  Even Maelle got a little a lot messy. 

Next up....cookie baking and decorating.  This was by far the most favourite activity.  And....I think that most of the decorations actually made it onto the cookies! 

We kind of have a little tradition around here when it comes to holidays - making little goodie packages for the teachers.  Well...maybe this might be my thing, but it's so much fun dressing up little boxes and giving them to the kids' teachers.  I think it's a nice little treat.  Not too mention tasty!

Now next up is the one thing that has kept me hopping for the past three weeks or so.  I was in charge of organizing a family movie night for Aidan's school.  Yes....the entire school.   I wasn't alone in this crazy endeavour, thankfully I had another mom helping me out, but I had to over see the event.  We expected to have around 250 people, but in the end had 450.  Wow.  No pressure.  Did I mention that this was the very first big event for Aidan's new school?  No pressure.  We decided to screen a classic Halloween movie, and have both the kids and the parents come in their pj's, bring a yummy snack, and go picnic style.  Very simple. The event itself turned out amazing!  Everyone was thrilled, and it was so much fun seeing families, friends, and teachers, set up their blankets, curl up with their snacks, and lay on their pillows to watch a movie.  Awesome.  Apparently their is a rumour about a Christmas one!  I am so in!

Oh...and what crazy schedule wouldn't be complete without snacking on a few roasted pumpkin seeds!  I found out a secret recipe from another teacher at Aidan's school....olive oil and sea salt.  So easy! 

Phew.  And we haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet! 

So....as you can see, it's been a busy household around here as of late.  The house itself...a disaster.  Remnants of movie night decorations are everywhere, costumes are strewn about the entire house, the kitchen is reminiscent of a rainbow of cookie sprinkles, and the cleaning....well let's just say that it's a good thing that it's Halloween - the cobwebs fit right in! 

always an adventure...

A crabby pirate, a tired princess, and two "I am not wearing those wings" fairies, made for a rather interesting Halloween photo shoot!  I should have known better.  I should not have had expectations on the kinds of shots I was hoping to get of the kids dressed up.  What was I thinking?  Well....I was hoping for cute shots of two little fairies - with wings and pig tails mind you - running and giggling their way through the grass and trees.  A princess skipping across the bridge casting a spell or two here and there, and a pirate duelling his way to a lost treasure.  Ok....seriously.  What did I get?  Well....two little fairies running alright, in opposite directions and wiping out.  A princess who would rather chase the pirate with her wand and turn him into something evil, and a pirate who retaliated against the princess by chasing her with the sword.  Sigh.  Despite all the chaos - I did manage to capture a few moments of...well...calm I guess.  The kids did have fun all dressed up running around outside, and really who wouldn't?  At the end of the day, whether the pictures that were taken capture my ideas or not, it is what they tell that matters.  They tell a story.  A story that is true, a story that is us.  Fun. Crazy. Unpredictable.

crisp & cool

A little chilly, a little crisp, but overall a great day to spend some time in the mountains.  I mean really, is there ever a bad time?  I ventured out today with Aidan and Maelle for a day of hiking and geocaching in one of our favourite spots that's close to home.  Our intention was to hike up Prairie Mountain (afterall, there were seven geocaches en route that just needed to be discovered) and then finish the day off with a couple of hot chocolates.  That was our intent.  Instead....we made a pit stop at Elbow Falls (bathroom break) and then decided that since it wasn't busy - ok we were the only people there - that we would search for a geocache in this area first.  Good decision!  Once again we bush whacked and climbed, scaled a bit of a precarious slope, and eventually found our treasure.  Score one!  Seeing that it was already late in the morning, we decided to have our lunch beside the river in the warm sun.  Good decision number two!  We enjoyed a quiet lunch of piping hot taco soup, and some treats, then hung out for a bit longer than we should have.  Gotta love the unexpected!

With full bellies, we decided to still attempt our initial hike, but maybe go only part way up the mountain, thus searching and eventually finding our next two geocaches.  Did I mention how much fun this is?  I think good decision number three was decided here.  I haven't hiked Prairie Mountain in quite a while, and although I knew it was steep, I forgot how steep.  Especially right off the start.  Let's just say it's a good thing we didn't go any further.  We'll maybe save this one for next year.  The kids did quite well....Aidan especially.  I think he could have made it - he likes to climb - but Maelle had troubles today.  I can't blame her though.  Her little legs just couldn't take any more clambering over rocks on those steep pitches.  A trooper none the less.

Even though our best laid plans changed and didn't go exactly as we expected - hence the old saying "expect the unexpected", we all had a great day out in the peaks.   This is my most favourite time of year to hike, and I love that I can now share it with Aidan and Maelle.  Next year I'm sure I will be sharing it with Bree and Jenna too!   

just plain strange

So....yesterday....the kids and I were outside in shorts and t-shirts.  We spent the afternoon running around in our bare feet and playing with the water table.  Less than 24 hours later we were faced with this....

Can you believe this?  I was digging out hats, mitts, winter jackets and boots this morning as the kids were heading off to school.  Not the bubbles and sunscreen like yesterday!  When all was said and done, we ended up with about 1 1/2" of the heavy white stuff, sloppy roads, and soaking wet clothes!  I must say though...it did look really pretty!

a visit to remember

First off....I do apologize from being absent from this space for a little bit.  We have been very, very busy out this way but all in good fun.  We have been lucky enough to have visitors!  Yay!  I love visitors!  And this visit was a special one indeed.  Not only were we excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Werkman here, but we also welcomed Nana and Papa too!  Awesome!  Nana and Papa made the trip west for a few days to meet (for the very first time I might add) little Rory, as well as Bree and Jenna.
We crammed in a lot of activities in a very short time, making the most out of Nana and Papa's time.  We welcomed them with a nice brunch at our house the day they arrived, and then it was a great afternoon outside with tea and visiting while enjoying time with the kids.   The next day they were off to Canmore with Kylie, Lindsay and Rory, and then on Tuesday it was a very lovely visit to Spruce Meadows followed by a coffee treat at my favourite spot - Cafe Crema, lunch and more visit time here before heading home.

The kids enjoyed their time spent with Nana and Papa, and there were lots of giggles shared all around.

Thank you Nana and Papa for a wonderful visit and for the lovely treats that you brought.  Your visit meant a lot to the kids, and also to both Brent and myself. 

Not only did we keep Nana and Papa busy, but we also kept Grandma and Grandpa hopping as well.  Aside from all the day to day adventures, they were brave enough to tackle the kids for an evening while Brent and I escaped for a evening out!  We had a lovely dinner that was followed by the Cirque du Soleil presentation of Kooza.  Let me just say if you have never been to a Cirque production - put in on your list of things to do!  It was fantastic! 

Grandma and Grandpa were also up quite early one morning (6:45 to be exact...ahem) to head off to the arena to watch Aidan play hockey.  They arrived with the early morning hockey standards of Tim Horton's coffee and timbits - all in the name of hockey!  Now that my friends is dedication! 

But....despite the busy days, there was always time for a good cuddle and a story.





All in all we had such a wonderful time with everyone.  Whether it was enjoying one of many cups of tea on the deck, designing and building a Lego board with Grandpa, geocaching and bush whacking our way to hidden treasures, enjoying a picnic in the mountains, playing in the backyard, or shopping at scrapbook stores 'til our hearts content...it was time spent with family.  And that is something that I always cherish both during and after any visit.

A big thank you to everyone for an absolutely fantastic and very memorable visit!

geocaching

Addicted.  Yep...that's all I can say about this outdoor activity!  If you are the type that enjoys a good adventure (like this family), loves being outdoors (also like this family) and loves treasure hunting (who doesn't?) then geocaching is for you!  This is something we have been meaning to try for a few years now, and just recently have got involved...like 4 days ago!  In a nutshell, geocaching is similar to a scavenger hunt, just with a GPS.  You basically find a geocache that you want to hunt for (via a website), download the info to your GPS, head off to your destination and start hunting!  The fun part however, is the finding.  Once you find the geocache, you log your find into the book provided, take a treasure, and leave treasure in its place.  Simple!  Now I must admit that the first few tries we came up empty handed.  I am not a technologically savvy person, so it took me a few trips to figure out how to use the GPS properly.  I am no expert in using it, but the bare minimum is just enough to locate the cache's. 

Aidan was all over learning how to read the GPS and find these cache's.   We ventured out with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner one night, and after a little bushwhacking, showers of pine needles, and trudging through thistle bushes and cobwebs.....we found our very first geocache!

Thanks to Grandpa Werkman's keen eyes, we located the treasure at the base of a tree, buried under brush and logs.  Aidan was grinning from ear to ear as he carefully examined the cache contents and selected his prize, and left one in its place.  After replacing the cache like we found it, it was off to locate the next one.  We ended up being 3 for 3 that evening, and left the trails with a feeling of all around excitement.  We are now officially addicted!